20 July 2011 11:10 AM

Mercury Music Prize - it's all about the girls

Wow, just where are the boys? The music industry's obsession a few years back with run-of-the-mill indie rock (hi there, Pigeon Detectives) has certainly backfired.

As a result, this year's Mercury shortlist is bereft of a great rock album. Of the males on the list, only Tinie Tempah has made a geniunely exciting record and it's arguable that he really needs the extra publicity a Mercury win is supposed to generate for its winner.

Indeed the inclusion of last year's worst mainstream album, Man Alive by Everything, Everything underlines just what a poor year it's been for rock music made by men.

So who should win? Well, as I earlier intimated, the point of the Mercury is not, unlike the Brits, to reward commercial success but to point the listening public in the direction of a great underappreciated album. So that rules out Adele's magnificent 21 and Tinie Tempah.

What are we left with? Anna Calvi? A good album agreed, but the fact that her main influence, PJ Harvey, is also on the list should preclude her winning.

My choice would be Katy B's On A Mission, a thrilling slab of dance-pop that owes a great deal to the most important pop music development of the last five years, dubstep.

It's also an album that, like The Xx's winner last year, and Elbow the year before, feels thoroughly, deeply British. And isn't that most of the point?

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